Our Commitment to Safety

HELPING HEALTHCARE CARE remains the constant guiding principle behind FFF Enterprises’ business model since its launch 30 years ago. We are committed to raising pharmaceutical industry standards, ensuring safe distribution of pharmaceuticals, and providing healthcare professionals with innovative solutions that promote the quality and safety of medical care. BioSupply Trends Quarterly, by design, is one way we further our mission to be a source of informative and timely material that covers events affecting our industry. Our focus this issue concentrates on several crucial safety concerns practitioners, patients and drug manufacturers face today.

With increasing administrative burdens placed on healthcare providers, there is growing evidence of occupational burnout among practitioners. Indeed, it is now known that more than half of physicians today have at least one sign of burnout such as feeling overextended, unsympathetic toward patients and lack of work achievement. This development, touted as a “national public health crisis” for its potential impact on patient safety, is covered in our article “Banishing Burnout in the Healthcare Setting” that points out how to identify ways to deal with burnout. To avoid a potential practitioner shortage, it seems clear that support in the form of improved workflow operations, reduced electronic health record (EHR) burdens and adequate allotted times to interact with patients can provide needed relief.

The recommendation to reduce EHR burdens is not meant to minimalize the importance of compliance to protect patients’ safety. Importantly, updated Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) rules require healthcare organizations protect patients against data breaches made possible by today’s digital age. As we explain in our article “Healthcare Data: Ensuring Regulatory Compliance,” three additional rules must now be followed, including the privacy rule, security and enforcement rule and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act. While the requirements can be complicated, organizations can best conform to these by assessing risk, making security part of their culture, understanding when information can be shared and following strict protocols when data is breached.

Of course, patient rights must continue to be protected in the event of terminal illness. As our article “The Evolution of Medical Aid in Dying” points out, while the right-to-die issue is controversial, existing laws call for adherence to strict criteria to ensure the process is safe. Oregon set the example with its Death with Dignity Act that now has 20 years of data showing the law is working as intended. Since its passage, five other states have enacted medical aid in dying laws, and 27 more states are considering them.

Lastly, lack of access to prescription medications is another safety concern for all involved, including patients, practitioners and drug manufacturers. One of the leading barriers to medication access is price, which can cause patients to go without medications or look for dangerous alternatives. It’s no secret drug prices in the U.S. are high compared with other nations. The question, though, is: Who is responsible? We delve into this topic in our article, “Are Drugs Really Overpriced?” And, while some answers might surprise many, increased transparency is needed before the full account for high drug prices can be truly understood.

As always, we hope you enjoy this issue of BioSupply Trends Quarterly, and find it both relevant and helpful to your practice.

Patrick M. Schmidt

Publisher